Shredder actor reveals strange circumstances of his casting, how involved Bay was

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Right from the start, the latest Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie was all over the map. The turtles were aliens, then Krang was in it, then Shredder was a white guy ... one weird thing after another had many fans throwing serious shade at this new take on the old franchise. Even Michael Bay's involvement was a subject of conspiracy theorizing. Just how involved was he, really?

In the end, despite all the many concerns, these new Ninja Turtles with their ninja noses are sitting on a $65 million fat stack after only one weekend. And that's just the domestic take.

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But that hasn't silenced critics. If anything, it's drawn curiosity about the film like a lightning rod.

Enter Japanese-Canadian actor Tohoru Masamune, who played Shredder, to add even more intrigue to these proceedings. Masamune was asked about the supposed original intent for William Fichtner to play Shredder and all the subsequent rewrites. His response is pretty telling, even if he's just coming at it from an actor's perspective:

For all I know, they were working three different versions of exactly where they were going to go with the character. I just kind of came in as an actor, and of course, if you’re offered Shredder, you’re not going to question it.

He may not question it, but it seems pretty questionable to the outside observer, doesn't it? Yes, it's normal for there to be some script changes happening during production, but to just have an actor there and then later say, "Hey, wanna dine on some Turtle soup?" That's not typical.

As for Michael Bay's involvement?

I personally did not see Michael Bay a lot, except for the occasional “this isn’t working”. Not a major thing, often a technical thing. Record at a higher bit rate, or something. He was never telling me to play my character differently.

This sounds about right. There may be some Bay-like touches to the new Turtles, but his fingerprints don't exactly seem like they're all over every aspect of the movie.